12 Reviews of Christmas - The Santa Clause 2 (2002)

         Hey guys, Chuck here. Well last year, I took a look at The Santa Clause starring Tim Allen. This year, as part of 12 Reviews of Christmas, I'd like to jump back into that world with The Santa Clause 2.

         So, it's been eight years since Scott Calvin first put on the red suit and became the new Santa Claus, and things are going really well for him. Productivity at the North Pole is better than ever, children are eighty-six percent happier now that Scott is Santa, and Scott has become a much better person because of it. Unfortunately, all of this good in Scott's life is about to be challenged, when one day, a young elf named Abby informs Scott that his son, Charlie, has found himself on the Naughty List. Shortly after that bit of bad news, Bernard, the Head Elf, and Curtis, the Keeper of the Santa Handbook, inform Scott of an addendum to the original Santa Clause. Apparently, a second clause exists known as the Mrs. Clause, wherein it states that within an eight year period of becoming Santa, Scott must find a wife or the original Santa Clause will be voided and Scott will no longer be Santa. 

         During a meeting with the Council of Legendary Figures, which includes Mother Nature, Father Time, Cupid, Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, and Sandman, Tooth Fairy proposes changing his name, to which Santa suggests "The Molinator." So, after the council votes against the name change, Santa gives an update on everything going on, including his needing to a wife by Christmas Eve, or else he'll stop being Santa. After the meeting, Curtis suggests making using the Universal Pantograph to create a life-size animatronic Toy Santa to cover for Scott while he's away. The machine successfully creates the duplicate, and Scott takes Comet to get back to his family. 

         Scott meets up with Laura, Neil, and Charlie, who is in trouble with his school principal, Carol Newman, for tagging a wall in the school gymnasium. Scott gets Charlie to agree not to do it again, and the meeting is ended, in spite of Carol's protests. At home, Laura and Neil agree to help Scott in finding a woman to be his Mrs. Claus. It's here that we also meet Laura and Neil's daughter, Lucy. After a failed blind date with a Christmas fanatic named Tracy, Scott struggles to find someone as the De-Santification process continues to turn him back into plain old Scott Calvin. 

         Things get worse when Charlie, once again, is caught tagging up school lockers, and while Carol initially suspends him from school, Scott suggests community service instead, to which Carol has Charlie clean up what he tagged, followed by cleaning every locker in the hallway they're standing in at that moment. In addition, she invites Scott and Charlie to attend a Saturday detention group that scrubs graffiti at a local park. Scott and Carol start to hit it off, which leads Scott to asking her out one night, to which she invites him to join her at the school faculty Christmas party. The two ride to the party in a horse-drawn sleigh with a blanket, hot chocolate, and a flurry of snow directly over them. 

         The party, which starts off duller than watching paint dry, starts to pick up when Scott suggests a Secret Santa exchange, to which several members of the faculty get gifts from their childhood, such as the game Toss Across, a Holly Hobby oven, Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots, and so forth. Scott even gives Carol a toy from her own childhood: Baby Doll. As days go on, Scott and Carol are really starting to get closer, and this is where Scott decides to tell Carol the truth: he's Santa Claus. She refuses to believe him and kicks him out of her house. Back at Laura and Neil's, Scott and Charlie have an argument, to which he reveals he's upset because he can't tell anyone that his father is Santa. 

          Back at the North Pole, things are breaking down quite a bit. The Toy Santa has started taking the Santa Handbook too literally, and looks at even small misbehaviors exhibited by children as signs that the children of the world are naughty outright, and orders the elves to work on setting up for the children to get coal for Christmas, and he uses the Pantograph to create an army of giant toy soldiers to carry out his bidding, which is to enforce his will on the elves. So, Curtis heads to find Scott to update him on the goings-on at the North Pole. Unfortunately, Scott has no magic left, Comet has overeaten chocolate, and the jet pack Curtis used is toast. So, they seek help from the Tooth Fairy to fly them back to the North Pole to stop Toy Santa. 

         Charlie goes to meet with Carol to tell her that his dad really is Santa, and he shows her his magic snowglobe, in which she sees the town of Elfsburg in the North Pole. Charlie and Carol are flown to the North Pole by the Tooth Fairy, and they help set Scott, Curtis, Bernard, and the elves free. Unfortunately, Toy Santa has taken off in the sleigh, so Bernard calls on Chet, who is a reindeer in training, and Scott takes Chet to catch Toy Santa and stop him from getting out of the North Pole. Meanwhile, the elves fight and defeat the toy soldier army, and Scott brings the sleigh back down, and puts the Toy Santa back into the Pantograph to make him smaller. 

            After a reminder from Bernard, Scott tells Carol that he can't be Santa anymore without a Mrs. Claus, and when he tells her that he loves her, she agrees to marry him, with Mother Nature officiating the wedding. Scott is Santa again, and he and Charlie take off in the sleigh to deliver the toys. Charlie wakes Lucy up, and shows her that Scott is Santa, and much like Charlie himself, she has to keep this knowledge a secret. Scott takes off to continue delivering the presents, and the movie ends with Lucy and Charlie watching him take off in the sleigh. 

        Okay, so I really enjoyed this movie. The returning cast, including Tim Allen, Judge Reinhold, Wendy Crewson, David Krumholtz, and Eric Lloyd are all terrific, as are newcomers like Elizabeth Mitchell, Liliana Mumy, and Spencer Breslin. I also liked Art LaFleur (RIP), Aisha Tyler, Peter Boyle, Kevin Pollak, Michael Dorn, and Jay Thomas as the Council of Legendary Figures. Heck, even Molly Shannon was pretty funny in this. 

         The visual design is way different than in the first The Santa Clause, to the point where the difference is practically night and day. Much of this redesign stems from the fact that we have a different director for this movie. Michael Lembeck, who is probably well known for directing several episodes of the iconic sitcom Friends, is the director of The Santa Clause 2, and he definitely does a fantastic job with both storytelling and visual design. I really like the idea of Toy Santa, and how he doesn't understand the difference between sheer naughtiness and occasional misbehavior. But once again, Tim Allen is excellent as Scott/Santa, and he is definitely the highlight of this movie. 

        Overall, The Santa Clause 2 is a worthy sequel to the original holiday classic, and I definitely give it a rating of 5/5. This is Chuck signing off. Join me tomorrow with my review of Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas as we continue 12 Reviews of Christmas.